Since the release of his self-titled debut album in 1993 to his duets album with Faith Hill in 2017—and the 13 studio albums in between—there’s been at least one constant in Tim McGraw’s music career: producer Byron Gallimore, who also produced Tim’s newest songs, “Neon Church” and “Thought About You.”

Byron has been at the helm of all 15 of Tim’s studio albums, winning a number of trophies along the way, including multiple ACM and CMA awards for Album of the Year and Single of the Year. Byron has also copped a Grammy for Best Country Album for producing Faith Hill’s Breathe, and he has been recognized for his work with Lee Ann Womack, Sugarland, Phil Vassar and more.

While an artist of Tim’s caliber—and longevity—typically uses a number of producers over his career, Tim tells Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown that working with his best friend is about trust.

“I just completely trust Byron’s ears and his thought process and what he does,” says Tim, “We’ve known each other for so long. We’re best friends, so we spend a lot of time together, go on vacations together, and we’re always talking about music and talking about sounds, and we work really well together as producers. I’m not a learned musician. I can’t read music. I don’t know anything technically about music, but I know what I want to hear, and when we’re working together, he speaks my language. He always knows that I want to push things. And, he lets me push stuff, and, as I like to describe it, you know the rumble on the side of an interstate that you hear when you’re running off the road? He lets me hit that every now and then without running into the ditch too far.”